As I needed a few days during European wintertime to keep my skiing skills at presentable standards, we decided to insert a few days in the snow at one of the European hot spot resorts. Returning from Egypt just before Christmas and unwilling to spend the Millenium craze in a secluded village, the only timeframe for that purpose remained just over the Christmas days - which was not that bad at all, at least we could expect a romantic white Christmas (Paris has the bad habit to be gray and rainy around that time of the year).The selection of the location was not too difficult: I required a decent altitude of the terrain to idealisticly ensure enough white powder even in the early days of the season, a southern exposure which might gift us with some sunrays in spite of the usual snowy forecasts at the given time, and of course a place which is worth being added to my list of famous and interesting travel destinations.After consulting the Ski Atlas for a while, we had circled in on Zermatt (the best terrain I have ever been to, but unfortunately... already been to), Cortina d'Ampezzo, and Chamonix. Of which the latter I did not want to try this time as one of my French friends owns a ski tour operator, so I figured I would find a slot to go there with him some time. Cortina remained the favorite for quite some time because I had not been there yet... remained until we wanted to book our flights there. Cortina is so much in the middle of nowhere that the closest international airport in Venice (which is at least 4 hours out by car, more if the countless passes on the way are blocked with snow), and the Italians had even trouble to spell the words "helicopter transfer", especially in English. Not so Zermatt, who features a local airline (Air Zermatt) with direct charters from Geneva (at elevated Franken prices, though, as does the rest of the village with all its services). However, the 50-minute helicopter ride (which would replace a 3-hour taxi drive) was worth all the money in the world. After the initial aerial views of prestigious homes on Lake Geneva, we would set off into the Alps, green and brown at first, then becoming more and more covered with white icing as the altitudes rose and the roughness of the mountains accelerated. To fly through mountain valleys and over ridges is breathtaking as the helicopter tour in Hawaii, but this time in an all-white grandioso setting of a picture-perfect winter tale scenery. I could have gone on for hours with remote out-of-this world dreams where frosty lakes and powdered Christmas trees gave way to secluded chalets seeming inaccessibly covered under loads of white lava.Our hotel had arranged for a taxi transfer, and because all exhaust engines are banned from Central Zermatt, this was one of the many electrocabs which you would see everywhere in Zermatt, replacing old-style horsepowered carriages.Although all travel agencies had told us that all five-star hotels were sold out, we finally managed to get into the famous Seiler Hotel Mont Cervin by relocation from the associated Schweizer Hof. And it was definitely worth it; for nearly the same price, the lower-category Schweizer Hof had not impressed us at all with its interior design of the lobby (a strange mixture of chalet style furniture cover with some sort of Scotch tartan and contemporary wood structures in not even matching tones), which was also the impetus for us trying our luck again at the five-star resorts Zermatterhof and Mont Cervin. By the way, also the five-star Zermatterhof would have had a room. It always pays to check the situation "sur place".The first day of skiing was legendary: blue skies and fresh snow, so I did a little off-piste through dreamy white powdered slopes. This was skiing as good as it gets. However, at the end of the day I understood why mountain guides told me they would not go off-track at this time of the year: The powder has no underlying base of solid snow or ice, so all too often one hits hard material underneath, which resulted in my rental skis being in such bad a condition at the end of only day 1 that I heard the rental guy already say the words: "These skis have had it. You'll have to pay for them." Luckily in the end, they were obviously used to rough treatment of their gear, so he did not charge me anything additionally. Maybe they just have good insurance.The remaining days were less brilliant: Heavy storms made most of the slopes inaccessible (wind speeds of up to 120 kph at Klein Matterhorn), leaving only the most unsatisfying runs crowded with amateurs. Nearly each day we watched the lift reports in the morning on our in-room information system, and after realizing that only 2-3 out of approximately 100 runs were open, we unusually decided to go shopping... which at last resulted in entirely new ski gear for both of us and 70 kg baggage on the return flight (luckily we are both Air France Frequent Flyers, so they did not charge us for the excess).

In pleasant contrast to the unfavorable conditions out in the mountains, our hotel dinners were always spectacular and surprisingly first-class for the number of people the kitchen had to cater for (there was one menu for all 300+ guests). One day they featured a Russian evening with a separate caviar buffet, another day a circus venue where dinner was served in the local circus tent, next to the stellar performances of artists hired from Paris, Zurich, and London. Christmas dinner was served in a low-light candlelight environment, adding to the already intriguing charm of the white wonderworld outside.